Crime Weekly - S3 Ep221: Crime Weekly News: Sherri Papini to Speak for the First Time!

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Sherri Papini, the "real-life Gone Girl", speaks for the first time after serving jail time for making false statements and mail fraud. Her case made headlines when she was apparently kidnapped, but investigators discovered that it wasn't all as it seemed... Check out our two-part deep-dive of the Sherri Papini case here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXRFYzcEeaXlgKu-jOVDoi7LsffWPt64e Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. MagicSpoon.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY to save $5 on your order!

Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. In this Crime Weekly News, we're going to be a little different. We're going to be doing a case update on a series that we've already covered. Sherry Papini, you may have seen. She's back in the news. But this time, it's a little different. What we've recently found out was a new documentary has come out regarding Sherry Papini, and it features her husband, Keith Papini.

And it's a really interesting documentary. You should definitely check it out. It's the first time Keith has had the opportunity to talk publicly like this. But we're also going to talk tonight about Sherry Papini because in response to this highly successful documentary, she has now also decided to speak for the first time, which is a shocker. I didn't see that coming, but there's more details to it. Stephanie's going to fill you in. So as Derek said, we did do a series on Sherry Papini and it was a roller coaster ride.

Yeah, I had never heard of the case. Anything this woman's involved in is just, it's a lot. So I'm going to give a quick update. Sherry Papini allegedly disappeared on November 2nd, 2016. She was allegedly out jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California. We still have to use the allegedly, huh? Yeah. Well, I mean, she lied because that's what she said. She lied. Got it. Got it. I appreciate the legal, you know, clarification and making sure. Just in case. I'm saying it more sarcastically, but you know what I mean. Yeah. She has anybody to sue a Tulu, not us. She can't sue anybody. She pops back up three weeks later and says she's been held by these two Puerto Rican women.

She had restraints on her. There was like a little kind of faded brand on her. And she told this whole elaborate, I mean, elaborate story. We're going to link our Sherry Papini series in the description box of this video in case you haven't seen it. It is a must watch, in my opinion. But yeah, an incredibly elaborate story about what these women were saying to her, what they were doing to her, other people coming in, how she was banging the window with the bars on the windows to get out. And then they came in and beat her up. And everyone, when she came home, they were like, oh, my God, this poor woman. What a horrible, what a horrible ordeal she went through.

And then a few months later, in March, Sherry Papini gets arrested on federal charges because, as it turns out, she admitted to having orchestrated this entire hoax. She wasn't kidnapped by any Puerto Rican women. She was at the house of an ex-boyfriend's and he came out and he was like, yeah, I picked her up. I dropped her off. You know, it was just a mess. And the person who kind of was involved with this whole situation, but we didn't really hear a ton from him, was Sherry's husband, Keith Papini, who was ride or die for her initially when she got back and like stood by her and defended her and was happy to have her home. But then as things

started coming out, he sort of faded to black and wasn't saying as much, which I think we can understand. So now Keith Papini speaks out for the first time after seven years of silence. And he's he's appeared in this new true crime series on Hulu. It's called Perfect Wife, The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherry Papini. I don't even know how they can say that anymore. The Mysterious Disappearance of Sherry Papini. It's not a mystery. She didn't disappear. We know where she was the whole time. So he said, quote, I've been approached over the years by a lot of different outlets. I think I was finally in a spot where I could talk about all the pain Sherry caused our family. I got married in 2009. They had two children. Everything was going great.

He said he felt completely loved by her. He said she would write him songs, notes constantly. She'd tell him how happy she was in their marriage, how they would never get divorced. She was so in love with him and he was in love with her. And he thought everything was fine, but apparently it wasn't. Who knew? He said, quote, there was no love with her and he thought everything was fine, but apparently it wasn't. Who knew? He said, quote, there was no part of me that ever thought she would fake injuries and have this whole hoax to the extent that she did it. I could not foresee that, but I did think we had a

happy life. We do have amazing children. I was blindsided, end quote. So yeah, like I said, this happens November 2nd, 2016. Keith's actually the one who finds out that she's missing. He finds her AirPods, I think, or her headphones on the ground. She didn't pick up their oldest child from daycare. He goes looking for her. She shows back up and he gets her back and he's like, oh my God, I'm so happy to have her back. But then things start to go wrong and he starts to figure this out. And this is after they've already raised $49,000, $50,000 with the GoFundMe. This is after Sherry's already used state funds to get therapy and counseling for a trauma that she never actually experienced. And he said that he started to question Sherry's story. Keith said, quote, there were many things that just didn't add up, but I wanted to support my wife. If you can't trust your wife, who can you trust? I just kept saying to myself, I'm going to do everything for my wife. I was led to believe that she was happy with us and that she didn't want any other life with anyone else. I just

wanted to support her at all times that we were together. With that being said, I'll never know all of the truth, end quote. And that's true. Only Sherry knows exactly why she did what she did and what she did. She's never really said specifically. But now, apparently, she's going to come out and give her side, most likely, as Derek and I were talking before we hit record, in maybe a retaliation for Keith going on this documentary and kind of saying what he feels. And now she's like, oh, no, you're not going to tell the story and I'm not going to not respond. I have to say something in response. So we'll see what we're going to talk about that in a minute. But what do you think about what Keith says? Yeah, I'm we talked before we started hit record on this.

And I'm glad we hit record before we continued. but I do wonder why he's decided to speak now. Uh, he has the right to first and foremost, I just, his children, how old would you say they are now? Cause I remember they were, they were very young.

Seven and nine. Maybe they were that like, yeah, they were young. So they're probably what, how many years ago was this? She's been in prison for a year. Six years, 2016, I think it happened, right? Didn't I just say 2016? Something like that. So she's, you know, the kids are in their teens now. And so this is definitely something that is going to get back to them and their peers and it may affect them. So I, whatever his reasoning is for doing it. You think you think Keith talking about this now is going to get back to them like they don't already know who who their mother is.

So I think. Well, I mean, obviously they know. But I also think that there's a lot more in the news now where it's probably not the topic of conversation every day at school. But when you have a hugely successful, I don't know if you said the number, 3.6 million people tuned in to watch the first episode of this documentary. So regardless of who knew about it before in 2016, now everybody knows about it and now it's relevant and back in the headlines. And so obviously it's going to be on the tips of most people's tongues. And so I do think you're going to have a lot of people at the school, parents of the children at the school talking about it. And it's going to make it, you know, today's headlines. And so I don't know why he did it. If I had to guess, he probably got a very nice paycheck to do it.

And maybe it was something and you kind of defended him on this. And by the way, I'm not even saying what he did is wrong. I'm just putting it out there. But as you said, there were a lot of expenses associated with everything that he had to go through that he had to pay. He's probably still recovering from that. So if a production company comes forward and wants you to tell your side of the story, because you had also alluded to the fact that she had alleged multiple times that Keith was abusive to her. So maybe he felt like this was his opportunity to, one, tell his side of the story, but also maybe recuperate some of the finances that he suffered at the time when this was all occurring. And especially in this economy, we can all use money to help to get through whatever

we're going through. And if I had to guess, they probably offered him a ton of money. So I really don't know what his reasoning is for it. And truthfully, it's really none of our business, whatever he's obviously thought about it. I'm sure he went back and forth on it. What's really interesting at this point to me is something you've already alluded to, which is why did Sherry Papini decide that now she wants to speak? Because as we all know, she was found guilty in a court of law and it seems pretty concrete what happened here. But

I want to hear your thoughts on, because you said some stuff off camera, I want to hear your thoughts on why you think Keith decided to do this. And then also we can talk about Sherry Papini as well. So let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Okay, so we're back. I don't care if Keith did it for the money. It's been several years. But at this point, everything she did was publicly published in the newspapers. Everything. It was a huge when you're reacting in a time of anger or you're freshly hurt. So you're not going to lash out, say things you don't mean. You've thought about it. You have a measured response. And I do think that, yeah, there was a lot of expenses in the wake of her kidnapping turning out to be a hoax.

She had to pay all that money back to the state that she used for like counseling services and stuff. They had to pay a lot of money back. So he's just recuperating his damages at this point. He had no idea. And, you know, if you ask Keith Papini, why did Sherry do this? He thinks what I think, which it was for the attention. He said, quote, I do believe the core thing would be attention. I think she likes it when people feel for her and look at her as a victim at anyone's cost. To be honest, I don't think she's capable of seeing what she did and the lives that it affected, the ripple effect, how much pain she caused to so many people. I always think about all the people who tried to help her during those 22 days that she was missing.

All the kids that probably weren't allowed to ride their bikes anymore. All the women that probably didn't go jogging anymore. I don't think she has any understanding of how detrimental it was. End quote. He says she has no remorse. She seems to not think she did anything wrong. This is a person who probably has some mental health issues, Sherry Papini. Yeah, I think that's a safe assumption. And he seems to be well aware of the ripple effect of the impact that his wife had. And he seems to feel remorse for it, even though he wasn't the one that did it. So I think Keith is coming from the right state of mind where it's been several years.

He's had time to really process. He's had time to forgive himself for not seeing the signs or whatever. And he's just speaking out on it in a place of reflection at this point. The kids are a little bit older. There's no way that these kids don't know what their mother did. And there's no way that the friends of these kids don't know what she did. So he's not exposing anybody. He's not bringing anything to light that hasn't been already aired out in every news outlet in America and beyond. So I don't think there's anything wrong with it. So the kids' ages, and maybe this is what you meant by it, and I just misunderstood

you. They are 9 and 11 now. They were very young then. Yeah. So they're 9 and 11 years old now. So probably looking at sixth grade and second grade. So it does change it a little bit. Teenagers are a lot more brutal as far as being willing to say things. I think that age, the kids are only really going to hear what the parents are talking about in the home. That's kind of what I see with Tenley and Payton, who are

almost the identical ages of these two children. So it's more so what they're going to hear from in the household. And I don't think it will affect them as much at school because they are so young still. And yeah, I mean, ultimately, as you mentioned, everybody already knows this story. It was national headlines. Could it gain a little bit of an attention? And maybe the kids will ask some questions. We don't know what Keith has talked to them about before. I mean, they're 11 and 9, so they are young, but they're more than capable of understanding

the situation. I've had some serious conversations with Tenley, who's 11, and she's smart. She gets it. She knows what's going on. So I'm assuming these children are in the exact same position. What do you think about Sherry? Because, OK, Keith, he's the victim here as much as anybody else. He went through hell and back with what transpired. And I would also say, have you seen this series, by the way? Because I have. I have not watched it. I have not watched it. So it's crazy because Keith claims that he found out after Sherry had gone to prison

that she was intentionally making her kids sick with rubbing alcohol, okay? Making them inhale it to make them sick. So it sounds a little bit like maybe a Munchausen's by proxy thing. Like this is somebody with a mental health issue who really just likes attention, whether it's coming directly to her, whether it's coming to her through, you know, the conduit of her children. Yes. So he said one night he was putting their kids to bed and their daughter. I think her name is Violet. She she was like, oh, are you feeling sick, daddy? And he was like, yeah, I'm not feeling great. And she said, why don't you do mommy's trick? And she said, you know, she showed him and like breathing in rubbing alcohol. He said she went to the bathroom. She knew exactly where the rubbing alcohol was. She wads up like toilet paper, soaks it in the rubbing alcohol and then presented it to him for him to breathe in. Which, I mean, I don't know if you know, but that's not not healthy. And Violet claimed that this would happen every single day. Did you just say, I don't know if you know?

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's rubbing alcohol. Inhaling alcohol? Rubbing alcohol? I don't know. Maybe some people, I guarantee you, not everybody knew that that was detrimental. Oh, my. But it is detrimental. Okay. Noted And and Violet said she would do this every day and then she'd bring her to the doctor. And he found out that Sherry would soak rags of alcohol, put in a Ziploc bag and tie a string around the kid's neck so that they would continue to smell the fumes and make them feel sick. So, yeah, I mean, this is a sick woman. She needs help. So what do I think about her? You don't want to know what I think about her. That does answer the question though. That does answer the question potentially because that right there, I've only seen clips of the show. I have not watched it. It's very good. You should watch it. I have not watched it, but what you just said makes sense to me now because most of what we know about Sherry Papini is about this whole alleged kidnapping and all the stuff that we covered in the series, right?

What we didn't know about, what we didn't talk about was this. No, we didn't really know much about their private life because Keith was quiet about it for six years. He didn't say nothing. So now Sherry's out and she's obviously had to endure whatever she's come her way because of what she already did. And now there's these new allegations. And as you know, and as I know, when you start messing with children, it's a different ballgame.

It's weird how our society works where they'll be like, yeah, you know, she ran away and kind of faked her own kidnapping. But maybe there was something going on where she felt she had to get away or maybe she just was dealing with something. But I think people can, to some degree, move on from that because it's really you're the only one you're affecting. I mean, obviously, your husband as well. But it's one of those things where when you're alleged to have done something to children, that is something that will never leave you. And it is something that people will, without a doubt, confront her on in her everyday life so maybe yo they confronted her like people hate her for what she did because it was it wasn't just the pretending to be kidnapped it was the racism of a pretending that it was two puerto rican women and like making all of these like they were playing like mariachi music or something like

remember she was definitely stereotyping it for sure she was awful so maybe that's but that's probably part of the reason is she's saying, oh shit, now he's coming out with all these other things. I have to tell my side of the story. And I'll also say, uh, she's working with ID who is someone who is an employer of mine at certain

points, you know, when we're working together. But the reality is I'm sure they're paying her to do this. I'm assuming they are. Of course. And I don't know how much they're paying her. It's none of my business. But again, I'm sure she's getting a chunk of change. I end up seeing

this interview being similar to the interview with Casey Anthony, where she's going to say what she says about what she initially did. She'll probably have some story as to why she did it. And I'm assuming or just guessing here that it'll have something to do with Keith. You know, she'll have she'll spin it some way where she was trying to get away from something. And then I'm assuming she's going to bring up something about what you just said, for sure. As far as the Munchausen by proxy, because that's a big deal. So if that's in the documentary, if you're telling me that's in there, she's definitely going to address the rubbing alcohol. Yeah. Those claims are in there. Yeah.'s definitely going to address that well the rubbing alcohol yeah those claims are in there yeah she's going to address it but like if you just wanted to get away from your husband because he's abusive why not just like disappear why would you come back she came

back yeah well yeah she's got i mean we we covered that extensively you guys definitely if you don't know this case this was one of the first like well it wasn't one of the first but it was a i thought we did really well on this deep dive we went over every single piece of this case and This was one of the first, well, it wasn't one of the first, but I thought we did really well on this deep dive. We went over every single piece of this case and I didn't know a lot of it beforehand. So it was kind of interesting to see how it unfolded. It was really a mystery for me. But yeah, we don't have very good things to say about Sherry. I think that's clear. And when you add these things on there, these layers of what now Keith is alleging, right, it's not good for her. So I do think when I was asking myself the question and you held that Easter egg in until

we started recording, I do think when you say something like, oh, there's new allegations of potential child abuse. Dude, there was a lot that came out in this series. That would be something that would get her off the couch and decide she has to speak because we have to say this. It's probably not good for her to go on camera. Like with everything that's happened, this won't end well for her. So the fact that she's doing it tells me there was something.

And I think what you just said might be a major component to that. Yeah, well, let's see what happens. And if you guys have not seen the Hulu series yet about Sherry Pepina, I would give it a watch. Or, and additionally, watch our series because it's really good. So watch our series first because it's going to give you the foundation, then pop into Hulu series. And if you have seen the series, let me know what you think about these alcohol, this rubbing alcohol allegations. Do you believe it? I kind of do. Like I said, if Keith was coming out right after she got arrested when she's in prison and she can't even do anything about it and just talking mad junk about her and like making up things or being dramatic or, you know, crying on the front of the cameras, I would say maybe that's for attention, too. But the fact that he's waited so long lets me know that I believe him about the rubbing alcohol thing, to be honest with you. So, you know, the kids are obviously old enough to articulate what may have happened. So I don't know what their involvement is in the documentary or how much they're going to speak, but overall they have the right to tell their side of the story.

They are the victims here. And now this is Sherry having to answer. It took a few years, but now having to answer directly to the people that she affected the most. So I don't have an issue with it. If he's okay with it, he's the, of the household over there and he's deciding what's best for him and his children. This is what he thinks is best, then we support him. But if you want to go check it out, like Stephanie said, it's on Hulu. And then the new special will be on ID whenever that's released. So you can check that out as well for her response. Anything else to add, Stephanie Harlow? No. We appreciate you guys being here. Everyone stay for her response. Anything else to add, Stephanie Harlow? No. We appreciate you guys being here.

Everyone stay safe out there. I will say this because I haven't mentioned it. We put out a social media post. Real quickly, K-Cups are all back in stock for criminal coffee. We also now have K-Cups for stealth as well, decaf. So if there's any K-Cups that you want, we have them. I probably should have announced that at the top of the show, but at least I didn't forget. Cause I would have regretted it if I did guys, everyone stay safe out there. We will see you later this week for

part two of Marlene Warren series. We were just getting into the details as far as how she was murdered. I'm, I'm looking forward to finding out what happened here. I don't even know if there's a conclusion or this one's unsolved. I've purposely avoided the comments. So I will see you guys later this week because I want to know as much as you do. Everyone take care. We'll see you later. Bye.